A Coventry children’s entertainer and magician who secretly filmed a teenage girl while she was taking a shower has been jailed and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Stephen Buxton, who took an overdose after his ‘deviant behaviour’ was discovered, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of taking indecent images of the girl.

Buxton, 43, of Burnaby Road, Radford, Coventry, who performed as ‘Mr Wizz,’ was jailed for 16 months and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.

He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order under which he is banned from having any contact with children without the consent of the parent or guardian, in the knowledge of his conviction, and the approval of Social Services.

Prosecutor Anthony Cartin said that earlier this year Buxton, not in his capacity as an entertainer, was at an address in Coventry where there was a 16-year-old girl.

When the girl said she was going to take a shower, he asked to go to the bathroom first, on the pretext of needing to go to the toilet, and the girl then went in and had her shower.

But as she was about to leave the bathroom she noticed a mobile phone in the corner – and when she picked it up she saw its camera had been set to record.

It had been recording for about 20 minutes, and when she played it back it showed Buxton placing the phone in the corner, having already started it recording, and then leaving.

It had also captured her going into the bathroom, undressing and showering.

The horrified girl went downstairs to confront Buxton, who left as she told one of her parents what he had done.

Then in the early hours of the following morning Buxton was found in his parked car, having taken an overdose of more than 70 Paracetamol tablets.

With him was a letter apologising for the upset he had caused and making it clear he intended to kill himself.

He was taken to hospital, and when he was arrested on being discharged the following day, his phone was seized.

On it police hi-tech experts found ‘thumbnails’ which were the traces of some naked images he had taken in a similar way of the same girl when she was 15, said Mr Cartin.

But despite what he had said in his suicide note, Buxton answered ‘no comment’ to questions when officers interviewed him.

What did the defence say?

Sarah Holland, defending, conceded: “Of course Your Honour will be sentencing for production of the images, which has a sentencing range of one to three years.”

She said Buxton, who held down two jobs – one as an engineer with Mercedes, and the other as a children’s entertainer - realised his offences were aggravated by being conduct in an area which the girl ‘would expect to be private.’

“The key mitigating feature is the remorse expressed by Mr Buxton, initially in the suicide note in which he apologised, and, more significantly, in the pre-sentence report. This is a man who understands the impact of his actions.”

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